24 Facts About Arthur Cayley

Arthur Cayley was a British mathematician who worked mostly on algebra.

Arthur Cayley helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics, and was a professor at Trinity College, Cambridge for 35 years.

Arthur Cayley was the first to define the concept of an abstract group, a set with a binary operation satisfying certain laws, as opposed to Evariste Galois' concept of permutation groups.

Arthur Cayley was born in Richmond, London, England, on 16 August 1821.

Arthur Cayley's father, Henry Cayley, was a distant cousin of George Cayley, the aeronautics engineer innovator, and descended from an ancient Yorkshire family.

Arthur Cayley settled in Saint Petersburg, Russia, as a merchant.

Arthur Cayley's mother was Maria Antonia Doughty, daughter of William Doughty.

In 1829 his parents were settled permanently at Blackheath, London, where Arthur Cayley attended a private school.

The young Arthur Cayley enjoyed complex maths problems, and the school's master observed indications of his mathematical genius.

Arthur Cayley advised the father to educate his son not for his own business, as he had intended, but at the University of Cambridge.

At the age of 17 Arthur Cayley began residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he excelled in Greek, French, German, and Italian, as well as mathematics.

Arthur Cayley finished his undergraduate course by winning the place of Senior Wrangler, and the first Smith's prize.

Arthur Cayley continued to reside at Cambridge University for four years; during which time he took some pupils, but his main work was the preparation of 28 memoirs to the Mathematical Journal.

Arthur Cayley became the standing referee on the merits of mathematical papers to many societies both at home and abroad.

Arthur Cayley constructed the Chow variety of all curves in projective 3-space.

Arthur Cayley took great interest in the movement for the university education of women.

Arthur Cayley accepted the invitation, and lectured at Baltimore during the first five months of 1882 on the subject of the Abelian and Theta Functions.

In 1893, Arthur Cayley became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1883, Arthur Cayley was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Arthur Cayley took for his subject the Progress of Pure Mathematics.

Arthur Cayley edited seven of the quarto volumes himself, though suffering from a painful internal malady.

Arthur Cayley's work continues in frequent use, cited in more than 200 mathematical papers in the 21st century alone.

Arthur Cayley retained to the last his fondness for novel-reading and for travelling.

Arthur Cayley took special pleasure in paintings and architecture, and he practiced water-colour painting, which he found useful sometimes in making mathematical diagrams.